The Weather does note eases up and the start of the action is postponed

08/04/2014

Desafío Ruta 40 ended up in a middle of the most intense storm of the last 40 years of the province of Neuquén and great part of the Argentinian territory. Extreme rains fell on the region and flooded several areas of the province and several roads were cut off which prevented the normal development of the competition and forced a new cancellation of a stage, the second one.

Today’s stage included some river crossing which were considerably flooded due to intense rain that fell during the night. The weather got much better during the first hours of the morning, safety vehicles which opened the road confirmed that the height and flow of rivers made great part of the stage impossible to be run. After getting this information, the Clerk of the Course decided to cancel the timed section due to safety reasons.

Vehicles left the Bariloche’s bivouac towards Zapala, where they will arrive around noon.

The weather forecast has predicted better weather conditions so after the confirmation of the state of roads, the third stage will be run. So it seems that tomorrow at 7:45hs, the fifth edition of Desafío Ruta 40 will start.

Tomorrow’s Stage

The third stage of Desafío Ruta 40 2014 is a completely new stage. The itinerary starts on a surface that will allow competitors to flat out. Slopes, compressions and jumps will be the obstacles they will face before getting to a strange area with a lot of vegetation, which is almost like a jungle, that will lead protagonists to a dry river with no track where the GPS usage is essential to find the way out,.

As an average, this year’s difficulty is higher since there are much more complex roads as kilometers go by. The intermediate section is a mix of fast tracks interrupted by slopes that join the course of a river.

This stage is so demanding that is does not even ease to the end since after a mountain track area with downhill returns there is a salar pond with vegetation and several prints that will tests navigation experts.